Month: September 2009

This post is the third in my money management series.  To start at the beginning, see post one: money management, post two: housing, and post three: food matters here!

Last Friday night (cool person that I am) I spent a couple hours at our grocery store – Woodman’s – with my shopping list, coupons, and a clipboard in hand.  My mission was to record the prices of the products we most often buy and to also record prices of some cheaper (but less sustainable or “responsible”) products.

You all had some great thoughts and suggestions about food, and I put some of it to the test.

For those of you not in the area, Woodman’s is a warehouse-type grocery store.  The shopping experience is…I’d say…not pleasant.  It’s also the cheapest place I know of to shop for groceries.  In the past, Bryan and I decided to cut our grocery bill (maybe $10/week) by shopping here instead of at Copps and the Willy Street Co-op.  It was a trade-off that allowed us to keep purchasing the food items we wanted (although the produce really does kind of suck).

I wanted to find out if buying all my toiletries, organic groceries, and cleaning supplies at Woodman’s was the best strategy, or if I could get some of the same items for less money elsewhere.  I found that a few toiletries (deodorant, contact solution, and tooth paste) were all actually cheaper at Woodman’s (the contact solution was $7 instead of $8) than at Walgreen’s.  Organic milk, Annie’s mac & cheese, and 7th Generation diapers were about equally priced at the Willy Street Co-op (which I’d say specializes in organic and local products).  So overall, I’d say that I’m doing pretty well by doing all my shopping at Woodman’s.  I’d love to buy more at the Co-op or at Trader Joe’s, but I feel like I’m saving a bit by doing it this way…and that’s allowing me to buy more of the products that I love.

Several of you suggested that I consider using coupons.  Some of you were shocked to hear that I have never clipped coupons.  I like the 20% off Gymboree or Macy’s coupons I get in the mail, but I really can’t think of a time I have clipped grocery coupons.  But, hey, I’m willing to try.  So I spent a couple hours looking online at various coupon sites.  There are hundreds of them.  The NY Times did a good article last week on how people are getting into clipping coupons again.  I was hoping to find a site where I could enter in all the brands of food that I like and they would let me know when manufacturer coupons became available.  As far as I can tell, no such site exists.  Instead, I found myself reading through hundreds of coupons for products I don’t want (mostly processed foods), and I just felt like I was reading advertisements.  I had a bit better luck by going directly the websites for a couple brands I like (Organic Valley milk and Cascade Farms organic frozen vegetables).  So I saved a couple dollars using coupons for the first time.  Woodman’s doesn’t have store coupons (or big advertised store sales), so I don’t think that the coupon route is going to be a huge saver.  If I wasn’t as picky…if I didn’t want a certain brand of yogurt or breakfast bars or soup…I think coupon clipping would be a lot more of a money saving technique.  But after doing research into brands and rather carefully deciding which ones I most want to support, I don’t like to switch brands to save $0.30.  Ahh, decisions, decisions.

Next I did a comparison of four products: Coffee, diapers, milk, and eggs.  Here’s what I found.

Continue reading “A penny for the coffee, a penny for the tea”

Hi!  Welcome to my third installment in my series on money management.  (See post one and post two:housing here!)  In an effort to spend a bit less and save a bit more, I’m taking a look at my family’s expenses.  I started big, and I’m working my way down.  However, our second biggest expense – Food – is such a big topic, I think I have the pieces of several posts floating around in my head.

First off, the details.  According to the analysis of Mint.com, our family around 20% of our money on food.   I’ve done some looking around, and it looks like the average American family spends 5-10% of their income on food…roughly half of that spent on groceries and half spent dining out. So we spend at least twice the average.  That’s a lot!

Granted, our Food category is pretty inclusive.  At the grocery store, we also purchase things like laundry detergent, diapers, light bulbs, Kleenex and toiletries, so those items are all lumped in with our grocery store purchases.  Even so, we spend an average of $160 each week on groceries.  Is this crazy?  How much does your family spend?

Here’s the rest of the picture.  As a family, we spend an average of $6/day eating out.  We spend about $4/week at coffee shops (this also includes ice cream at JavaCat!).  Over the last year, we paid $2,400 on food outside of the home.  Geesh!  It felt like we were being judicious in our choices about eating out, but that seems like a lot of money!

As we look for ways to curb spending, our Food category seems like  a critical one to examine since it comprises such a big chunk of our overall expenses.  We love our food, and for us, the food we eat has a lot to do with our values and the way we want to nourish our family and our world.

I got a master’s degree in Natural Resource Policy and Behavior.  As an undergraduate at Carleton, I took classes in sustainable agriculture.  In my work at Gathering Waters, I did some work with the Federal Farm Bill.  Throughout these experiences, I’ve read and thought and talked extensively about conventional and more sustainable farming practices.

I’ve looked at the history and the current status of the US’s farm policy, and I’m acutely aware of how farm subsidies, school lunch programs, food-stamp programs, and even the food pyramid have in many cases lost the concept of feeding people real, fresh food that’s good for our bodies and our communities.  I’ve seen how difficult it is for people to change behaviors.  Perhaps most importantly, I’ve learned in my studies that since we live in a capitalist society, if we want things to change, we need to vote with our money.  I feel passionately about that.  No matter who I elect into office or what education programs I help create, the thing that matters the most is, collectively, the companies we support with our daily dollars.

I want to see a shift away from conglomerate farms.  I want farmers to earn a living wage.  I want farmers to use good, healthy farming practices.  I want lots of products offered in grocery stores that don’t contain trans-fat or high-fructose corn syrup or long lists of words I can’t pronounce.  I want to enjoy food that was raised or grown right nearby so I’m not encouraging so much long-distance transport of food and so I can support local farms.  I want my kids to know and expect their food to be real, healthy, and tasty.  To achieve those goals, I believe that I need to be a conscientious consumer.

Now I want to step back for a moment and give a disclaimer.  What I’m hoping to do in this post is to share some of my family’s values, which are then shaping the decisions we are making about how to spend our money.  We’ve come to these values over the course of many years, and they are personal and evolving.  I think everyone has the right to express their own values – be they political, religious, or of a foodie nature.  I just hope that no one read any judgmental tone in any of this, as none is intended.

So back to being a conscientious consumer…  Unfortunately, in general, I’ve found that purchasing food and products that promote the values I hold dear means I’m paying a premium.  But I’m willing to do it!  Since the time I was a young girl in the 1980s and learned about dolphin-safe tuna, I’ve felt that it’s worthwhile to spend a few extra cents to purchase products that are doing good.

Ten years ago, Bryan and I bought all conventionally-produced groceries.  We now spend maybe half of our grocery budget on what I’ll call non-traditional food items…things are either organic or local or higher quality.  In my next post, I’m going to take a look at some of those items (milk, eggs, diapers, coffee) and look at our budget implications of spending our money this way.

My hope is that if we have to change some of our spending patterns, we can find strategic areas to cut so we can continue to live by our values while saving some money in the near-term.Let me know what you think about all this!  How much does your family spend on groceries every week?  Are there more expensive things you buy that think are really worth while?  What grocery items are most important to you?

I look forward to hearing what you have to say!